The use of adsorbent-filled gas storage vessels to achieve greater storage efficiencies of nonliquified gases is well known, see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,712,730; 2,681,167 and 2,663,626. The primary advantages of adsorbent-filled tanks include increased gas storage density cycling between the specified temperatures and pressures;.sup.1 increased safety due to the relatively slow rate of desorption of the gas from the adsorbent; and equivalent storage density at lower pressures which results in savings in compressor costs, construction materials of the vessel, and the vessel wall thickness. FNT .sup.1 Ray and Box, Ind. Eng. Chem., Vol. 42, No. 7, 1950, p. 1315; Lee and Weber, Canadian Jrn. Chem. Eng., vol. 47, No. 1, 1969; Munson and Clifton, Natural Gas Storage with Zeolites, Bureau of Mines, August, 1971, Progress Rept.
There are also a number of well known disadvantages in using adsorbent-filled tanks. These disadvantages include the increased weight and cost of the adsorbent when the same storage pressures are utilized; lost volume due to the fact that the adsorbent skeleton occupies tank volume and, therefore, liquified or nonadsorbable gases have an overall reduced gas storage density; and the preferential adsorption of selected components of a gas mixture which can result in a variable gas composition.
Nevertheless, adsorbent-filled tanks are particularly useful for certain storage applications such as the storage of methane or natural gas as a fuel for vehicles, see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,522,159 and 4,523,548. The practical goal for these adsorbent filled storage vessels is to store the gas at a pressure of less than 500 psig at ambient temperature, 163 standard liters methane per liter vessel volume the equivalent of a nonadsorbent filled tank cycling between 2000 psig and 0 psig at ambient temperature.
Various materials can be used as adsorbents of gas, such as molecular sieves or zeolites; bauxites, activated clays, or activated aluminas; dehydrated silica gels; and activated carbons, graphites, or carbon blacks. Because these adsorbents have different chemical compositions, they adsorb gases by means of different processes, such as physisorption, chemisorption, absorption, or any combination of these processes. The primary adsorption process and, thus, the optimal type of adsorbent varies with the application and is determined by the properties of the gas being stored and the temperatures and pressures of the storage cycle.
It is known that in selecting an optimal adsorbent for the adsorption of a gas and, in particular, for the storage of gas, certain properties of the adsorbent must be considered. These properties include the pore size distribution. It is desirable to provide a maximum percentage of pores of small enough size to be able to adsorb gas at the full storage temperature and pressure and a maximum percentage of the pores of large enough size that they do not adsorb gas at the empty temperature and pressure. Additionally, adsorbent activity is important; that is the activity of the adsorbent should be maximized to provide a high population of adsorption pores. And, finally, packing density of the adsorbent must be maximized such that the adsorbent density in the storage vessel is maximized so that more adsorbent is contained within the vessel and a greater percentage of the tank volume is occupied by pore space where the gas adsorption occurs.
The optimal pore size distribution is defined by the pressures and temperatures of the storage cycle and the properties of the gas being stored. The pore size distribution of an adsorbent determines the shape of the adsorption isotherm of the gas being stored. A wide variety of pore size distributions, and therefore isotherm shapes, are available from the wide variety of adsorbents available. Certain coconut-based and coal-based activated carbons, for example, have been found to have a more optimal isotherm shape, or pore size distribution, than zeolites or silica gels, for ambient temperature methane storage cycled between 300 and 0 psig..sup.2 FNT .sup.1 Golovoy, Sorbent-Containing Storage Systems For Natural Gas Powered Vehicles, Compressed Natural Gas Conference Proceedings, P-129, p. 39-46, SAE, 1983.
The optimal activity for any adsorbent is the highest activity possible, assuming the proper pore size distribution. The activity is usually measured as total pore volume, BET surface area, or by some performance criterion such as the adsorption of standard solutions of iodine or methylene blue. The disadvantage of maximizing the adsorbent activity resides in the associated increase in the complexity of the manufacturing process and raw material expense which ultimately manifests itself in increased adsorbent cost. One of the highest activity adsorbents presently known, the AMOCO AX-21 carbon, has been used for methane storage at ambient temperature, cycling between 300 psig and 0 psig. The AX-21 carbon produced 57.4 standard liters per liter..sup.3 Even with the unusually high activity levels, approaching the theoretical maximum activity, the adsorbent filled vessel was not close to the 163 standard liters per liter goal for vehicle use, but was significantly better than the 32.4 liters per liter observed for a conventional activity, BPL carbon, under the same conditions. FNT .sup.3 Barton, S. S., Holland, J. A., Quinn, D. F., "The Development of Adsorbent Carbon for the Storage of Compressed Natural Gas", Ministry of Transportation and Communications, Government of Ontario, June 1985.
The third means of increasing the gas storage efficiencies is to increase the adsorbent density in the storage tank. The greater the mass of an adsorbent of particular activity and pore size distribution in the storage tank, the better the gas storage performance. However, the maximum density of a specific particle size adsorbent is defined by its apparent density..sup.4 There are several methods of improving the adsorbent density in the gas storage vessel. FNT .sup.4 Apparent Density as used herein means the maximum density achievable for a given particle size(s) distribution using the standard procedure proscribed in ASTM-D-2854. For 80 mesh or less, AWWA test method B-600-78 Section 4.5 is used.
One means of increasing the adsorbent mass in a storage vessel is to maximize the inherent density of adsorbent by means of the manufacturing process, producing nontypical adsorbent sizes and shapes. One such method has been described wherein a SARAN polymer is specially formed into a block having the shape of the storage vessel prior to activation to eliminate the void spaces between the carbon particles as well as to increase the density of the carbon in the vessel. Although this is not a particularly economical approach, it has been done for SARAN based carbons to achieve a density of 0.93 g/cm.sup.3 to provide a 86.4 standard liters methane per liter tank..sup.5 FNT .sup.5 Barton, S. S., Holland, J. A., Quinn, D. F., "The Development of Adsorbent Carbon for the Storage of Compressed Natural Gas", Ministry of Transportation and Communications, Government of Ontario, June 1985.
The elimination of voids through the use of formed blocks of adsorbent has also been used in U.S. Pat. No. 4,495,900 where zeolite powders were hydraulically pressed into rods or bars, dimensioned and shaped to fill a vessel with minimal spaces. Densities of 0.7 g/cm.sup.3 were achieved, but methane storage densities of only 40 grams methane per liter vessel were observed (56 standard liters per liter), cycling between 0 psig and 300 psig. Far from the goal of 108 g/liter (163 standard liters per liter).
Another known means for increasing the density of an adsorbent is to use a wider distribution of particle sizes. This has been demonstrated by crushing a typical activated carbon to produce a wider particle size distribution which resulted in an increase in the apparent density of 18 to 22%. This increase resulted in a corresponding increase in the methane storage density..sup.6 7 As a result thereof, it was generally concluded that increasing the packing density of an adsorbent with the correct pore size distribution is a more practical solution than increasing the activity level. However, the 18-22% increases in packing density observed by widening the particle size distribution is not great enough to bring the methane storage densities within the desired range of 163 standard liters per liter at less than 500 psig. FNT .sup.6 See, Remick and Tiller, Advanced Methods for Low-Pressure Storage of CNG, Institute of Gas Technology. FNT .sup.7 Remick et al, Advanced Onboard Storage Concepts For Natural Gas-Fueled Automotive Vehicles, U.S. Dept. of Energy, pp. 29-35, DOE/NASA/0327-1.
It is, therefore, the object of the present invention to provide a means for achieving substantially increased gas adsorption systems, such as storage capacities and molecular sieve filtration abilities, at reduced pressures, using adsorbents with optimized pore size distributions but with conventional activity levels and of conventional size and shape. A large number of different gases may be stored by this means, however the gases must be stored in the gaseous state (not liquified), and be adsorbable on the adsorbent at the reduced pressure and storage temperature. It is also the object of the present invention to provide a method for obtaining significantly improved adsorbent packing densities for obtaining the increased gas storage capacities and molecular sieve performances.